It is written, My house shall be a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves.

There are several things we need to know in order to best understand what is happening in this passage.

Lets start with a brief description of the temple. The temple was a series of walled off areas. The innermost sanctum where the ark resided was separated by a great veil that was a foot thick of heavy canvas, only the high priest on holy days was allowed to go there. The room around that was designated for placing the sacrifices of bread and wine before the lord…, only the Levite priests were allowed to go there. Outside of this room was the inner courtyard, it was divided by the great altar where the blood sacrifices were conducted. Only the Levites were allowed behind the altar, and only the “ritually clean” jews were allowed into this courtyard, to bring their sacrifices to the Levites. Outside of this courtyard, but still inside the walls of the temple, was the outer courtyard. This was where the the jews had setup a marketplace.

So why was Jesus so mad. The outer courtyard was still designed to be a holy place in the temple, this courtyard was intentionally created as a place that gentiles of the whole world could come to worship the one true God. Gentiles were not allowed in the inner parts of the temple, or make sacrafice, but they were still invited to come and worship the one true god in this area. The Jewish leaders hated the gentiles, and they did not want this, so instead they desecrated it, and pushed the gentiles out and away. And they pushed them out in one of the most vile ways, consumerism.

There is also another disgusting thing about this scene. The Jewish temple sacrifice was meant to be a gift from the person, that was given as a true sacrifice, a gift of the firstfruits that came from their own household. But instead jews would just show up at the temple with money (with caesars face on it) and they would exchange that idolatrous money for their “sacrifice” and then they would then present that newly bought sacrifice to the levites. This economy was not what Jesus wanted, the sacrifice was supposed to come from best of your life and work, and that you should have an attachment to it. To just show up and hand one Levite money, and another Levite the sacrifice that was just handed to you, was deplorable, and clearly not what God had intended.

Lastly in this reading the lord references the prophet Jeremiah. In chapter 7 of his prophecy, Jeremiah predicts this scene, and that the temple will be defiled, and uses the language of a den of theives. This reference would not be lost on the Pharisees, and scribes, and is clearly another reason they were looking for a way to capture, and kill Jesus. He had made them all look callow, and low, and used one of the most respected of prophets in their faith to do it. This had to be greatly humiliating for them.

So Jesus drives these evil doers out. And He is still doing that today. Although it is getting harder and harder, but judgement day is coming, pray that you are the one He is defending, and not the one feeling the pain of His whip.

Oh lord, help me to not desecrate your house, and your holy eucharist, and give me the courage to call out others who do so.